Benefits of a Web Conferencing System

The increasing globalization of businesses and their markets are driving companies to adopt more collaborative measures in order to counteract the challenges they're faced with everyday. Advances in technology and the Internet have brought about the rapid increase in development of web conferencing systems. But exactly what kind of benefits do companies get from their web conferencing software?

Web Conferencing Provides an Alternative to Travel
One of the many advantages of web conferencing software is that it can be used as an alternative to travel which is far more costly and less secure. With virtual meetings held in their web conferencing room, companies now have a way to meet with the staff, discuss new projects, make sales presentations, and all in all, increase overall productivity of the business without having to spend a single penny on air travel or hotel accommodations.

"The average business traveler will spend three years in flight, two years traveling to and from airports, 28 months waiting for flights (that are on time), 11 months waiting for connections, and more than three months just searching for a parking spot, according to the National Business Travel Association," reports James McKeown of Stampede Technologies, a marker of collaborative and web conferencing software solutions.

He further adds, "In light of this, many organizations are reconsidering all but mission-critical face-to-face meetings. Nimble companies are demanding better, faster, and cheaper answers to their meeting needs." And thus, web conferencing provides the solution.

"As leaders cut back on travel, conference calls are yesterday's way of meeting," Jaclyn Kostner, Ph.D., author of Bionic eTeamwork, observes. "Conference calls work as a supplement to face-to-face meetings, but when people are not traveling and getting to know one another, conference calls alone are ineffective." The supplementation of conference calls with web casting and web conferencing is an advantage in that it increases productivity and helps participants get work done faster.

Web Conferencing Provides an Excellent Method of Online Education
Another powerful real world application where web conferencing can show its advantage is education. Now that so many people are comfortable with email, online education programs and seminars based on interactive chat and web conferencing software are gaining in popularity.

"While there is less personal experience in an online meeting, there are huge advantages to holding online meetings, including no travel costs and no travel time," says Al Rickard, president of Association of Visions.

Web conferencing allows an increased focus on task at hand. Conferencing via web can be done within the privacy of your office where there's less distraction and you can keep your attention to what is being discussed. The people you'll be dealing with are connected to you virtually so whatever interaction you may have with them will be strictly about the discussion at hand.

Web conferencing lets you see and even interact with the material being taught. A presenter can use the desktop sharing mode and show participants exactly what is on the presenters computer screen. This "show-and-tell" is great when demonstrating a particular feature of a software program or method used to complete a task.

Web conferencing also supports orderliness during a meeting. Conferencing software allow the room moderator to enforce one-at-a-time features or the need to "raise a hand" in order to have control over the microphone. In this way, everyone has the chance to speak out and the opportunity to voice out what they have in mind.

Web Conferencing Provides a Degree of Privacy not Available Otherwise
Privacy is another compelling advantage of web conferencing via the web. This means that while you're attending a virtual meeting or conferencing via web, you have almost total and complete privacy. You can dress as you like, sit as you like, drink if you like, and even smoke throughout. You can put your feet up, lean in your seat, and do whatever you want so long as you keep your attention on the topic being discussed.

Mailing Lists vs. Web Conferencing Systems
With the rapid growth of technology, web conferencing systems are fast replacing email lists in disseminating information through the web. But don't get this wrong though. Email is not about to get phased out.

A mailing list is a type of online service wherein a group of people get to share the same information. This is done through a central source, typically called a List server, which is responsible for sending out information to all subscribers of the list. The List server is nothing more than a computer which stores a list of email addresses.

There are several problems with email lists that led to businesses using web conferencing systems instead. These are:

It is inconvenient to limit access to specific email messages to specific people within a group. List servers mail to everyone or no one at all. Of course, a human Moderator may be chosen to intercept and edit the incoming messages but this significantly limits the interaction between members. The goal of web conferencing system is to enhance human interaction between participants in an online environment.
Email arrives chronologically and is not organized in any other way. This makes web conferencing systems much more preferable since, with the use of playback options, the minutes of a virtual meeting could be stored using the application's more advanced organization capabilities.
Email can be hard to read. Email messages usually have lots of cryptic header material, no formatting, and virtually no font changes. Web conferencing systems on the other hand is done in real-time and makes use of not just text messages but voice, video, and whiteboard graphics as well.
Graphics cannot be displayed on many systems.
There is no common document database with email. Each person has his/her own copy of each email item, and people vary in what they delete or save. If they do save messages, each person has his or her own idiosyncratic method for organizing it. With information individualized this way, it’s hard for a company comprised of several individuals to keep track of information using a common denominator.
Replying in context is difficult. You will either have to repeat the original message or summarize it. Some email programs today actually let you delete portions of the original message but that would mean cutting up the context.
No convenient way for multiple people to work jointly on the same document. With web conferencing system’s countless sharing options, you virtually have control over the desktop of other participant’s desktop.

More about Web Conferencing

About Web Conferencing
It should be noted that web conferencing doesn't just mean a real-time online discussion between individuals on the web. It has come to mean more than that as technology continues to expand.

How Web Conferencing Works
During web conferencing, each participant of the meeting sits at his own computer that is connected to others' computers via the Internet. The Internet therefore serves as the matrix by which the whole web conferencing network relies on.

Cheap Web Conferencing
Now, not only do you have the industry giants, such as Microsoft, Macromedia, and WebEx dominating the market, but you also have such companies as Hot Conference, offering their own two cents to the more affordable web conferencing solutions.

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